CopyFraud

When the bubble pops, take II

Last time I wrote to CopyFraud, I was puzzled by the fact that Tuomo Tilman ja Jyrki Salminen got away with their trick to "raise" money from investors just on the eve of the dot com bubble. However, the law works in mysterious ways and now the supreme court of Finland has convicted them to jail for 2.3 years and to fines of 7.8 M€ each (which is still nothing compared to their winnings from the stocks they sold). Now we have seen another stock market crash, this time due to subprime loans. Unlike in the dot com bubble, I did not loose money anymore. I guess the experience I got from TJ Group paid off well. I converted all my investments into "cash" over 1.5 years ago and got nice profits.

When the bubble pops

In 2000, a Finnish IT company TJ Group announced a large scale stock issue, the result of which was that the main stock holders Jyrki Salminen and Tuomo Tilman, who were also running the company, walked away with 130 million euros in total. After the stock issue, the price of the stocks droped to be under 1/100 of the price in the issue. Economically not so big thing was that I personally lost thousands of dollars---money to Jyrki's and Tuomo's pocket. Recently, Jyrki and Tuomo were fined for delaying the announcement of information about the results of the company before the issue. The fines were only about 7000€ each. After buying fancy sport cars and other luxuries these fines just make the guys laugh. They can pay a noticeably part of the fines just with the money I gave them in the issue. Here in Finland, people think I was stupid to invest in the company. In the States on the other hand, they would say I am now experienced. As painful as it is to know that Jyrki and Tuomo got a way with their trick, at least I can console my self with the fact that I was not the only one who lost and that I was still wise enough to sell the stocks after their value had dropped 40%, not 99% as my friend did. What can everybody learn about this? Sometimes you just have to admit that you made a wrong decision and the sooner you do that the better.

Burgal cuffs him self into porn store

I say. Alcohol must have something to do with the events in Helsinki Porn shop. Police found the burgler who had chained him self with furry cufs lying in a PVC dress with some store equipment "placed into him" when responsing an alarm. Link: Iltalehti Online.

Itseään tyydyttänyt mies makasi nahkasohvan takana naisten mustaan PVC-muoviasuun ja vaaleanpunaisiin pupukorviin sonnustautuneena. Hän oli pannut itselleen myös mustat, karvaiset käsiraudat ja sijoittanut itseensä hyllystä löytämiään välineitä.

Could it be that the case had something to do with the name of the place "Stag nite-shop"? It would be the ultimate stag nite prank to break in to the store and leave passed out bride/groom in... to awkward situation.

Digitoday uses Games illustration

Today Digitoday has a news about Nokia dropping their sponsorship of the Sugar Bowl. Digitoday is speculating that the reason for dropping it would be partly because FOX got the broadcasting rights. Could be.. But look at the picture. It says "Nokia Sugar Bowl year 2002". Is it just me, or is that a screenshot from madden 2003? I bet that most of the Finnish people didn't register that the story was illustrated with screenshot and the Sanoma company didn't have access/money/time to get a real image of the (Nokia)sugar bowl. digitoday

Finnish Big brother Awards

29.11.2005 Lehdistötiedote Electronic Frontier Finland - EFFI ry Big Brother 2005 -palkintojenjako ensi keskiviikkona - seminaariohjelma julkaistu Electronic Frontier Finland ry (EFFI) jakaa ensi keskiviikkona 7.12. Suomen Big Brother -palkinnot vuoden tökeröimmille yksityisyyden loukkaajille. Aiempina vuosina palkinnon ovat pokanneet muun muassa Sonera teleurkintajupakastaan ja YTV matkakorttisekoiluistaan. Tänä vuonna ehdolla on useita tahoja sekä julkiselta että yksityiseltä sektorilta. EFFI toivottaa kaikki yksityisyydestä kiinnostuneet tervetulleiksi tapahtumaan. Palkintojen saajista päättää vuosittain vaihtuva asiantuntijapaneeli. Tänä vuonna paneelin puheenjohtajana toimii europarlamentaarikko Piia-Noora Kauppi ja jäseninä kansanedustaja Heidi Hautala, internet-vaikuttaja Johan Helsingius, oikeustieteen tutkija Juha Lavapuro, eurooppaoikeuden professori Tuomas Ojanen, toimittaja Ruben Stiller sekä tietoyhteiskuntafilosofi Tere Vadén. Ennen palkintojenjakoa EFFI järjestää seminaarin perusoikeuksista ja yksityisyydestä EU-lainsäädännössä. Asiantuntijat keskustelevat seminaarissa mm. turvallisuudesta, valvonnasta, teletietojen tallennusvelvollisuudesta sekä EU:n perustuslaillisesta sopimuksesta. Seminaarin jälkeen tarjoillaan viinit ja purtavaa. Seminaariin ja palkintojenjakoon on vapaa pääsy. Ilmoittautumiset ja tiedustelut pyydetään lähettämään sähköpostitse osoitteeseen [email protected] 6.12.2005 mennessä (huom! aikaa jatkettu). Lisätietoja

News hit my nerves again

Todays main news was:  Drum run.... 29 days to shop before christmas. Some of the shops were open during today (General holiday thanks giving). "I just love to come at 5 am and look people to line up and wait the door to open, open open."
Oh and the reporter was standing LIVE in front of k-mart that had closed its door for the day.

Product placement needs rules

Link: Product placement comes to the fore.

Film and TV unions in the US have called for a code of conduct to regulate the way products are placed within shows and movies by advertisers. But is hidden advertising a fact of life in modern entertainment?

The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild have joined together to object to what they see as the increased blurring of lines between advertisements and entertainment.

The BBC story mentions Donald Trump's The Apprentice which is a shameless product placement reality show. One of the things I like to do when watching a film is to spot product placements. It is rather easy in american films and series where all the trademark items are actually cut out. Coca Cola sponsors a lot of films. Mike Myers is not the only one making fun of product placement. One of my favourites is the Truman story scene where Truman's wife starts a mindless pitch about a home cleaning product.

The whole mess kind of reminds me of the Payola institution where record companies are paying radio stations to "power play" their artists. It is not forbidden but the audiense must know that why the record was picked (not because Dj thought it is good music but because of $$$).

Royalties at Bay area

The bay area is full of famous people visiting. Charles and Dia.. I mean the rotweiler, Dalai Lama and my friend PasiPorkka.

This would be a totally normal US news broadcast. The news here suck! They have a simple formula.

1. Lots of local news like: Shark attacking surfboard
2. Foreign news only if G W Bush is involved: The did cover the recent protest against the free trade negotiations. (News have not mentioned the french riots)
3. Send your reporter onsite. Doesnt really matter if the school was burned down yesterday and its totally dark.
4. Never interview experts. Instead interview stupid people. You get comments like: "damn its cold!" (news of winter coming to bay area).
5. News must be 1 hour long and have several commercial breaks. Doesnt matter if nothing has happened.
6. Place a threatening personal news to the end of the show that keeps people watching. "price of gasoline goes up. See how it affects your wallet."

Update: On todays news: "I am a dog photographer. Charles likes dogs, so I like to take a picture of him."

Copyright law demo pics

Link: Finland for Thought has pictures of the tuesday demonstration..

Murder, kill, stab International

Link: Helsingin Sanomat - International Edition

A group of youths assaulted and stabbed a 38-year-old man in Ida Aalbergintie in the Helsinki suburb of Haaga in the early hours of Saturday morning. The man died from his wounds. According to eyewitnesses, a crowd of 6 to 10 youths aged 16 to 18 were present at the scene. The group consisted of white and Somali men together with a few white girls.

Oh no. It is like three hundred meters from the place I lived. When I moved to Haaga I remember thinking that there werent too many ethnic groups there (just bunch of winos). Things changed about a year ago. Now look what happened.

What is wrong with these people. I know that knives or "puukko" is part of finnish culture. These kids learn fast. Todays Hesari states that the boys were captured. Death seems to be come a common part of every day life. Couple months ago a girl was shot to death three block away from our house in Berkeley and couple months before that a girl stabbed an old lady also right next to our house.

Meleia Willis-Starbuck, 19, a Dartmouth College student home for the summer, was slain July 17 on a Berkeley street, moments after calling Hollis for help as she and some friends argued with a group of young men. Police said she told Hollis to "bring the heat" _ meaning bring a gun.

Authorities believe that when Hollis arrived, he fired at the men from a car, unintentionally shooting Willis-Starbuck.